Class: Work
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Class Notes
Getting a job has a great deal to do with education and social class. But it also has to do with connections. Grannovetter (1973) found that it's people's weak ties-- their acquaintances-- who are influential in helping people find jobs.
Affirmative Action is not about quotas or compromising standards, but requires firms to gather all relevant information on all qualified applicants, to interview minority candidates, and to make sure that minorities have access to needed information. Affirmative action increases profits and worker satisfaction.
But people have different positions on affirmative action.
Some liberals think that it hasn't helped the poorest and most disadvantaged. While top U.S. colleges are accepting more people of color today than ever before, they tend to come from middle and upper class families. They also might believe affirmative action sets people up for failure. The six-year graduation rate for Native American, Latino, and African-American students is well below 50%; whereas whites have a 60% graduation rate, and Asians have a 65% graduation rate.
Conservatives, in the other hand, are likely to think that preferential treatment is demeaning, and that any form of discrimination is illegal. However, there are more marginally-qualified legacy students at Harvard than African-, Mexican-, or Native-American, and Puerto Rican students combined.
We are in a post-Industrial society, where much of the work is service work which involves direct contact with clients, customers, patients, or students-- and supervision from a manager or supervisor. Most post-Industrial work is knowledge work-- the average worker is working more hours in the information age. We are telecommuting more often, and rarely turn off the phones and computers in our lives.
Required Reading:
"The Smile Factory: Work at Disneyland," Van Maanen (Sociology Reader, pp. 210-219)
"Still a Man's World: Men Who Do "Women's Work," Williams (Sociology Reader, pp. 304-313)
Keywords: Education, Social Class, Weak Ties, Affirmative Action, Post-Industrial Society, Service Work, Knowledge Work, Unions, Routinzation, Rationalization.
